Allerton Junction

Allerton Junction is an at grade junction signal box just east of Liverpool South Parkway, Allerton, Merseyside. It takes its name from the former Allerton station that South Parkway replaced. The junction is where the Liverpool to Manchester line branches off the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line. Services operating over the junction are East Midlands Railway (to Nottingham & Norwich), TransPennine Express (Leeds & Scarborough), West Midlands Trains (Birmingham New Street), Northern (stopping services to Manchester Oxford Road) and Avanti West Coast (London Euston).

1. History

It has only existed in current form since 1966, as prior to this the former Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) main line from Manchester Central passed beneath the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) main line and continued on to Liverpool Central High Level. However the 1963 Beeching Report recommended that all mainline rail services into Liverpool be concentrated at the ex-LNWR Liverpool Lime Street station and that the CLC Central High Level station be closed. Accordingly, a new connection to Hunts Cross West Junction (known as the Hunts Cross chord) was built by British Rail in 1965/66 to link the two routes and allow services from the Warrington and Manchester direction to join the LNWR line from Crewe and so reach Liverpool Lime Street. This re-routeing took effect from 5 September 1966 - thereafter the former CLC line west of here was only used by local trains between Central and Gateacre. These were withdrawn in 1972, but the line was later reopened as part of the Merseyrail network in January 1978 as far as Garston and then extended to Hunts Cross in May 1983.

1. Operation

Though there are two pairs of lines through South Parkway station on the main line, only the fast (eastern) ones are linked to the Hunts Cross route - any on the western (slow) pair must be crossed over to the fast lines north of the station if heading towards Manchester. Allerton Junction signal box (a flat roofed BR standard structure built at the same time as the chord) is located immediately beyond the junction, operating it and the connections into the nearby Allerton TMD.

1. See also

Allerton TMD depot

1. References

Nearby Places View Menu

Hunts Cross chord

Hunts Cross chord is a section of railway track in Liverpool that was built by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) to connect the LNWR's Edge Hill to Ditton Junction line with the CLC's Liverpool to Manchester Line. Mainline services between Manchester and Liverpool were diverted to Lime Street from their previous terminus at Central High Level over this connection from 5 September 1966. Train operating companies using the chord are East Midlands Railway and Northern for services between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly along the CLC route. TransPennine Express used this route until May 2018, when trains were rerouted via Newton-le-Willows.

Landmark Train

Liverpool South Parkway railway station

Liverpool South Parkway station is a railway station and bus interchange in the Garston district of Liverpool, England. It serves, via a bus link, Liverpool John Lennon Airport in the neighbouring suburb of Speke, as well as providing an interchange between main line services and the Merseyrail rapid transit/commuter rail network. Opened in 2006 on the site of the former Allerton railway station, it also replaced the nearby Garston station. The station is located towards the southern end of Merseyrail's Northern Line and on the junction of two main lines: the Merseytravel City Line from Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington and the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line to London via Crewe.

Airport Landmark

241 m

Allerton railway station

Allerton railway station was a railway station on the City Line of the Merseyrail network, located in the suburbs of Liverpool, England.

Landmark Train

253 m

St Benedict's College (Liverpool)

Saint Benedict's College was a Catholic secondary school and sixth form college located in Garston, Liverpool, England. The school was coeducational from years 7 to 11 and included sixth form.

School